


Foxglove

by tea_for_lupin



Series: The Herball [9]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Fairy Tale Elements, Foxglove, Gen, fairy wife
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2014-12-16
Packaged: 2018-03-01 19:40:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2785322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tea_for_lupin/pseuds/tea_for_lupin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes two years to grow the leaves to start the heart again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Foxglove

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



Mary's a healer; she knows a bit about failure of the heart. Chronic, acute—sometimes there's too much fluid in the bloodstream, which tears aren't enough to purge. That's why: bring flowers for the grave. 

Dead man's bells hang heavy in the summer heat; they're pink and cream and flecked with red, an invitation for the yellow bees.

Fair folk and poison: they go together, slip you between the cracks. There's mending and there's breaking apart. It takes two years to grow the leaves to start the heart again. In winter she wears a red coat, a green cap. At Yule the past goes up in flames. In another tale, another time, she might have wept for anger or for fear. These tears are joy. 

She's welcome here.

When summer rolls around, again, the foxgloves line the border, tall at the back. The flowers open from the bottom up; no one knows the story of their name. Bees love them, anyway—and busy themselves with pollen and pistil, blithe in the blooms.

**Author's Note:**

> [Foxglove](http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/f/foxglo30.html)   
> [The naming of foxglove](http://blog.oup.com/2010/11/foxglove/)


End file.
